Need help: How to TRUELY back up your EVO

[Selfdestruct]

So i had the screen light / screen adhesive problem

Before i took it to the store i doubted i would remember how my apps were in order so i took pictures with my nexus for reference


I also had that app - that supposedly syncs all apps to manage them -- when i remember the name ill update -- APP BRAIN or something

I was thinking that would be a good backup for apps -- in case i had to reinstall


so i get my new evo replacement, and download that app program thinking it would prompt that there are apps missing from previous sync... nope! it just resynced with the default apps (maybe i did something wrong)


leaving me to just reinstall everything by hand ( i figured id have to do that )

So my question:

IS there a true backup program / app that will back up literally everything? Apps, app positions, sms, etc.? People need an easy way to restart on a new phone without taking an hour just to download and setup (think Time Machine for mac;... easy and painless)


Times you would use backup:
1. To go from a broken phone to a replaced phone with little effort

2. To go from an old phone to a new phone with little effort




Has anyone tried ? (By tried I mean backed up and then restored)

MyBackup
http://www.rerware.com/MyBackup/default.aspx

 

[orbitz781]

Yes there is a really good backup program that I've used from switching between two Hero phones and then going to the Evo as well. It's called My Backup Pro. It's not free but it pays for itself after one use. It saves absolutely everything...Contacts, apps, texts, photos, system settings. It's the only one I will trust with everything being all sorted and in order in case of anything happening :]

 

[MisterEd]

Yes there is a really good backup program that I've used from switching between two Hero phones and then going to the Evo as well. It's called My Backup Pro. It's not free but it pays for itself after one use. It saves absolutely everything...Contacts, apps, texts, photos, system settings. It's the only one I will trust with everything being all sorted and in order in case of anything happening :]

"It saves absolutely everything" ONLY if your phone is rooted. Apps and some other settings can't be backed up without root.

Titanium Backup is another good app for a rooted phone. Last night I data wiped my phone twice and rooted it with unrEVOked and restored everything using both of these programs just to test them. MyBackup seems to be a little more solid right now. Titanium Backup is crashing a lot for me on my EVO but it still did t he restore. TB has a lot more features where MyBackup is a lot easier with less features.

 

[orbitz781]

No I never had my phone rooted. I was letting the OP know that you didnt have to make any adjustments to the phone to use that program, its one of the most convenient and simple backup programs and it's saved me quite a few times.

 

[MisterEd]

No I never had my phone rooted. I was letting the OP know that you didnt have to make any adjustments to the phone to use that program, its one of the most convenient and simple backup programs and it's saved me quite a few times.

The OP asked:

IS there a true backup program / app that will back up literally everything? Apps, app positions, sms, etc.? People need an easy way to restart on a new phone without taking an hour just to download and setup (think Time Machine for mac;... easy and painless)

You told him it "backs up everything including apps" which is not the case unless you are rooted. It also doesn't back up a lot of the system settings unless you are rooted. If rooted it does everything he asked for. The simple 1 click no hassle unREVOked root will do the job just for backup.

 

[SebastianX]

Revoked is just bad,it can't even write to the system partition outside of the OS, hence why custom ROMs are a no no. Root via Toast and then download Titanium Backup it does everything you described including backing up system config files.

 

[MisterEd]

Revoked is just bad,it can't even write to the system partition outside of the OS, hence why custom ROMs are a no no. Root via Toast and then download Titanium Backup it does everything you described including backing up system config files.

You're way off track. The OP wanted to know how to do a "full and complete backup" and not how to load new roms. In order to do that you need root. If ALL you want to do is be able to fully backup so you can swap phones or a full data reset or maybe use a couple other basic apps unrevoked is absolutely perfect. Easy to install, easy to remove, works with Titanium Backup as well as MyBackup Pro and most off all it takes about 5 seconds to do and 4 seconds of that time is spent downloading and installing. Everyone doesn't want to or need to load custom roms, but to allow a full backup that requires root the simplest method is the best and that would be unrevoked.

If this thread was about burning new roms you'd be 100% correct, but it's not.

 

[SkyintheSea]

With the new phone do u get any light leakage because I was going to return mine for the same reason.

 

[MisterEd]

With the new phone do u get any light leakage because I was going to return mine for the same reason.

I've had light leakage for years. My doctor gave me pills to stop it. (Urine in the wrong thread). This is about backing up your phone.

 

[Twistax]

So i had the screen light / screen adhesive problem

Before i took it to the store i doubted i would remember how my apps were in order so i took pictures with my nexus for reference


I also had that app - that supposedly syncs all apps to manage them -- when i remember the name ill update -- APP BRAIN or something

I was thinking that would be a good backup for apps -- in case i had to reinstall


so i get my new evo replacement, and download that app program thinking it would prompt that there are apps missing from previous sync... nope! it just resynced with the default apps (maybe i did something wrong)


leaving me to just reinstall everything by hand ( i figured id have to do that )

So my question:

IS there a true backup program / app that will back up literally everything? Apps, app positions, sms, etc.? People need an easy way to restart on a new phone without taking an hour just to download and setup (think Time Machine for mac;... easy and painless)


Times you would use backup:
1. To go from a broken phone to a replaced phone with little effort

2. To go from an old phone to a new phone with little effort




Has anyone tried ? (By tried I mean backed up and then restored)

MyBackup
RerWare MyBackup Pro: The #1 backup application for Android Phones (backup Android, Nexus One, Motorola Droid, G1, Hero, MyTouch, etc...)

You know after playing around with the "Astro file explorer" App, i noticed it has a backup feature built in to it which will back up any app to your SD card. Is this what u mean? ;p

 

[Leafgreen]

Does restoring backed-up apps (using MyBackupPro or Astro) when switching from Hero to Evo create potential problems with compatibility? I mean, why not just download and install from the Market again?

Astro does NOT back up app settings. MyBackupPro does it for about 20, and NONE of my ~50 apps (including very popular ones like Handcent and K9 that have LOTS of settings). Otherwise this question would be moot, as I would use these apps to restore my settings.

 

[Selfdestruct]

I'm trying to avoid rooting... basically cuz its out of my league


As results of light leakage -- i have 2 pin hole light leaks on the bottom of my new phone much better than before which were like 2 lines -- but who knows maybe after a week of use it will get bad again... time will tell


One reason I want a good back up is because I have a nexus one that i want to be able to mirror over as much as possible when i travel abroad

be able to click backup and then copy files to my laptop and then plug nexus in and do a restore on there and have mostly everything with me

another reason is just this... if this light leak problem persists ( which i think it will for some months ) this will be a simple warrantied item which they will replace at no cost ... so i want an easy way to switch without headaches and recustomization

 

[superlinkx]

If you were going to root, a simple nandroid backup is the best, though it should only be used between phones of the same type. Without root, there isn't any really good backups. My backup will backup texts and such, but most of your data should be synced with the internet or saved to the SD card. That just leaves apps and settings. Settings cant be backed up without root, and until Froyo, apps can't be backed up without root, at least, if you want them to show up in the market so you can easily update them. I use app brain, but you should save your apps to a list before you sync. After sending, you can then add all the apps from the backup list back to the device list. Then you can easily install the apps back by syncing. Works great, preserves the app entries in the market, and if you are on WiFi, faster than using the crappy SD card backups. If you don't mind rooting, titanium backup is the fastest and easiest, after nandroid.

 

[Jonhern]

i used unrevoked and i have root, tested shoot me and it works. But can't get titanium to open, says i am not rooted. Also says i need busybox, so i tried to install that and it was also a no go. How do you get titanium backup to work with unrevoked? Superuser permission comes up and i say ok but it still will not startup.

 

[superlinkx]

i used unrevoked and i have root, tested shoot me and it works. But can't get titanium to open, says i am not rooted. Also says i need busybox, so i tried to install that and it was also a no go. How do you get titanium backup to work with unrevoked? Superuser permission comes up and i say ok but it still will not startup.

Did you hit the "Problems?" button? You need to install busybox through that. Usually that fixes the root problem. If not, you may want to try Wireless Tether to make sure everything is rooted. Just grab it off the market. Or get it off the web if you want something that acts as a real access point.

You might want to try the unrevoked3 app on your computer and follow those instructions to get a custom recovery. Then you can make nandroid backups, which are a lot less messy than Titanium Backups. And they are free, whereas Titanium is only worth your time if you pay for it.

 

[Jonhern]

Did you hit the "Problems?" button? You need to install busybox through that. Usually that fixes the root problem. If not, you may want to try Wireless Tether to make sure everything is rooted. Just grab it off the market. Or get it off the web if you want something that acts as a real access point.

You might want to try the unrevoked3 app on your computer and follow those instructions to get a custom recovery. Then you can make nandroid backups, which are a lot less messy than Titanium Backups. And they are free, whereas Titanium is only worth your time if you pay for it.

yes, i used unrevoked 3 since i had done the ota update. how do i do a nandroid back up?

 

[Jonhern]

thanks superlinx, that fixed it, i had downloaded busybox from the market and that did not work, but the problems button did and now it is working.
But if nandroid backups are possible with unrevoked3 how do i do that?

 

[superlinkx]

Oh good! Then all you need to do is turn off the phone. Then press and hold volume down while holding the power button. This will turn it back on into bootloader. Wait for it to do some SD card checks and then use volume down to highlight "recovery". Hit the power button to select it. The phone will reboot into Clockwork recovery. Just look for a link to backup/restore and use the volume buttons to highlight and power to select keep going until you find the backup or nandroid backup option. I don't remember how clockworkmod does it. Anyways, you can use that to back up your entire system in about 3 minutes. Then use the options to restore too. Personally, you may want to try installing the RA recovery for evo, as its easier to navigate and standardizes the nandroid directory on your SD card. Instructions here: [Recovery] [18-June-2010] RA-evo-v1.7.0.1 - xda-developers.

PS. after reading the link, I realized you need to unlock nand. This isn't hard, but it will take a few minutes. If you are interested, use these instructions: [TUTORIAL] How To Unlock Nand Protection ~ Part-2 [Gaining RW Access/Full Root] - xda-developers and then to update use these: How to start over: Fully rooted stock 1.47.651.1 in one shot (no adb!) - xda-developers. If you have any problems, just contact me. I'm more than happy to help.

 

[Jonhern]

Oh good! Then all you need to do is turn off the phone. Then press and hold volume down while holding the power button. This will turn it back on into bootloader. Wait for it to do some SD card checks and then use volume down to highlight "recovery". Hit the power button to select it. The phone will reboot into Clockwork recovery. Just look for a link to backup/restore and use the volume buttons to highlight and power to select keep going until you find the backup or nandroid backup option. I don't remember how clockworkmod does it. Anyways, you can use that to back up your entire system in about 3 minutes. Then use the options to restore too. Personally, you may want to try installing the RA recovery for evo, as its easier to navigate and standardizes the nandroid directory on your SD card. Instructions here: [Recovery] [18-June-2010] RA-evo-v1.7.0.1 - xda-developers.

PS. after reading the link, I realized you need to unlock nand. This isn't hard, but it will take a few minutes. If you are interested, use these instructions: [TUTORIAL] How To Unlock Nand Protection ~ Part-2 [Gaining RW Access/Full Root] - xda-developers and then to update use these: How to start over: Fully rooted stock 1.47.651.1 in one shot (no adb!) - xda-developers. If you have any problems, just contact me. I'm more than happy to help.

Thanks, will the ra recovery wipe the phone? So should i do the back up first and then that, are the nandroid backups compatible between the two? Also, will it work if i were to install froyo? or is that not possible with unrevoked3?



Update: Looked over the threads and looks like it will wipe data, so i will try that at a later time. sounds like it will not work unless i do the other method of rooting, not unrevoked. Thanks for your help.

 

[superlinkx]

Thanks, will the ra recovery wipe the phone? So should i do the back up first and then that, are the nandroid backups compatible between the two? Also, will it work if i were to install froyo? or is that not possible with unrevoked3?



Update: Looked over the threads and looks like it will wipe data, so i will try that at a later time. sounds like it will not work unless i do the other method of rooting, not unrevoked. Thanks for your help.

Yes, it will wipe because you have to get NAND access before you can install RA recovery. Flashing a recovery wouldn't otherwise. Nandroid backups will work, with unrevoked3, you just need to do the first part of my instructions. The nandroids are compatible between the two, but you will need to manually move the nandroid from the clockworkmod folder to a proper subfolder of the nandroid directory. (which I can help you with really easily, isn't hard, just an extra step) You can also boot into recovery really easy by installing quick boot off the market. This requires root, but since you have it, its all good. Just open that app and hit recovery and it will automatically reboot into recovery. From there you can run the backup. It won't work for Froyo, but I wouldn't recommend using any backups for jumping between OS's, including Titanium. This is because of incompatabilities that could cause some system errors. The only safe way to do it between OS's is to use AppBrain and reinstall after the update. Takes time, but its worth it. Nandroid makes an entire system image. Basically, your boot images, your settings, apps, messages, etc are all frozen in time. You restore a nandroid, and it will be EXACTLY as you had it at the time of the backup. This is great when moving to replacement devices or when trying various ROMs. This should not be tried between different devices of other types, or if you want to use a different ROM or OS version, as it backs up the entire OS.

I can try to help a little more with Clockwork, but since I haven't used it in a while, you'll have to let me know where you get stuck and tell me what options you have. Remember, to navigate, you have to use the volume up/down keys and the power button to select.